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Marching Orders for More U.S. Military Personnel
Aired March 12, 2003 - 13:54 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: There are marching orders for more U.S. military personnel. The U.S. is sending its fleet of B-2 stealth bombers overseas.
Our Jeff Flock is live from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri with details on this deployment.
Jeff, hello.
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Daryn.
We don't know the exact time, but we believe it's very, very soon. What you see behind me are these hangars, or docks as they call theme here at the Whiteman Air Force Base. This is where the nation's entire B-2 stealth bomber fleet is based. Very difficult to see back in the hangar. That's part of what this aircraft is about, being stealthy.
That one kind of hard to see because the it's hazing out here today.
But for the first time, some of this fleet will be forward deployed overseas, probably to the Diego Garcia, the British base in the Indian Ocean. Want to show you some pictures we took earlier today, this of a lot gear being loaded. A lot of the personnel that are going to maintain the aircraft, and their gear has been loaded up and put on aircraft. We watched an aircraft being loaded earlier this day, but the B-2 itself is the last piece of that puzzle.
Also have some pictures that give you a sense of what will take place when they're overseas. This is bombs, munitions being loaded on board a B-2. What they feel, is that they can forward deploy them and make them operate from much closer to the theater of battle. They can run a lot more sorties, load those bombs on overseas, as opposed to having to come back all the way here to Missouri, where they're home- based. Because up until now in combat, they've flown every mission out of here in the heart of Missouri. So it's a long ride to a place like Iraq or Afghanistan, 40-plus hours. There've been maintenance concerns with these aircraft, though, Daryn, in the past, and the thought being that they're hopeful they'll be able to maintain them successfully at an overseas base as they would here at the homebase in Missouri.
We'll watch it and let you know when it happens. I hear one taxing on behind me in the background. A lot of activity out here today.
Back to you, Daryn.
KAGAN: Really, really interesting pictures there. Jeff Flock, thank you for that.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired March 12, 2003 - 13:54 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: There are marching orders for more U.S. military personnel. The U.S. is sending its fleet of B-2 stealth bombers overseas.
Our Jeff Flock is live from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri with details on this deployment.
Jeff, hello.
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Daryn.
We don't know the exact time, but we believe it's very, very soon. What you see behind me are these hangars, or docks as they call theme here at the Whiteman Air Force Base. This is where the nation's entire B-2 stealth bomber fleet is based. Very difficult to see back in the hangar. That's part of what this aircraft is about, being stealthy.
That one kind of hard to see because the it's hazing out here today.
But for the first time, some of this fleet will be forward deployed overseas, probably to the Diego Garcia, the British base in the Indian Ocean. Want to show you some pictures we took earlier today, this of a lot gear being loaded. A lot of the personnel that are going to maintain the aircraft, and their gear has been loaded up and put on aircraft. We watched an aircraft being loaded earlier this day, but the B-2 itself is the last piece of that puzzle.
Also have some pictures that give you a sense of what will take place when they're overseas. This is bombs, munitions being loaded on board a B-2. What they feel, is that they can forward deploy them and make them operate from much closer to the theater of battle. They can run a lot more sorties, load those bombs on overseas, as opposed to having to come back all the way here to Missouri, where they're home- based. Because up until now in combat, they've flown every mission out of here in the heart of Missouri. So it's a long ride to a place like Iraq or Afghanistan, 40-plus hours. There've been maintenance concerns with these aircraft, though, Daryn, in the past, and the thought being that they're hopeful they'll be able to maintain them successfully at an overseas base as they would here at the homebase in Missouri.
We'll watch it and let you know when it happens. I hear one taxing on behind me in the background. A lot of activity out here today.
Back to you, Daryn.
KAGAN: Really, really interesting pictures there. Jeff Flock, thank you for that.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
